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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics
in as much as when they evolve out of their elemental cause, they may be said to originate and when they return to it, they are annihilated. The Vedānta philosophers thus deny the elemental existence of material atoms. Matter, if it is real, is not atomic, it is one continuous whole. The doctrine of Māyā conceived as an all-pervasive cosmic principle as well as the Vedāntic theory of Ākāśa as the first material element out of which come the other elements and which actually permeates all material substance, certainly point to a doctrine of material continuity and not to that of an infinite number of self-centred atomic reals.
SĀMKHYA THEORY OF CONTINUOUS MATTER
The Sāmkhya conception of Praksti also as the one ultimate cosmic material principle unmistakably lends support to the theory of real matter as a continuous substance. In fact the author of the $āṁkhya Sūtra's criticises the atomic theory by saying that the atoms cannot be the basic reality as they are limited in extent, 'qitforgacara T T TEITHI (१४ विषयाध्यायः) thereby implying that real matter is one continuous and all-pervasive substance.
GREEK ATOMIC THEORY
On the other hand, the atomic theory also has had its prominent supporters from ancient times and is generally accepted by the present-day physicists. Inspite of the fact that the science of hydrostatics may be built upon the hypotheses of a continuous fluid, it may safely be said that the physical sciences in general and the science of chemistry in particular, are based upon the assumption of the real existence of atoms. The theory of atoms was propounded by the early Greeks obviously in opposition to the abstract monism of the Eleatic school. "Leucippus”, says Aristotle, “thought he had a theory which was in harmony with sense-perception and did not do away with coming into being and passing away nor motion nor the multiplicity of things. ... He said that what is real is, strictly speaking, an absolute plenum but the plenum
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